Whimsical, funny, willfully amateurish… Teenager Hamlet manages to explore with great aplomb both the fear of death and the fear of ‘Akting’.

— Stephen Greenblatt

A moving and insightful way to use Shakespeare to explore youth, art and our generation in the modern age. It reminds me of the way Van Sant used Henry IV as a springboard into exploring the young, disenfranchised generation of Portland in the early 90s.

— James Franco

Teenager Hamlet is a Canadian urban pastoral that recalls Bruce McDonald’s and Don McKellar’s work with passion and place. It remembers what it is to be young and filled with overwhelming curiosity; with a profound desire to make one’s own sense of the world. To watch it is to feel that way. Teenager Hamlet remembers what it is to be young and filled with overwhelming curiosity; with a profound desire to make one’s own sense of the world. To watch it is to feel that way.

— Lynn Crosbie

ABOUT THE MOVIE

Teenager Hamlet was conceived and directed by Margaux Williamson. The confines of the director's friends and neighborhood within a no budget production, in addition to the confines of the documentary format, created a retelling of the Hamlet story where Hamlet could only get so far as putting on a play.

It was produced by Julia Rosenberg of January Films, shot by Lee Towndrow, music directed by Steve Kado and stars Sheila Heti, Sholem Krishtalka, Margaux Williamson and many others.

It was first screened at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2008, another version was released as a DVD with Canada's KRK Media in 2010, another version screened at the Art Gallery of Ontario in 2012. The final version was screened at Brooklyn's Union Docs in 2012 and can be found on UbuWeb.